Novak Djokovic dismissed talk of retirement as he confirmed his intention to return to Wimbledon next year.
The 38-year-old suffered a chastening semi-final defeat to Jannik Sinner, beaten in one hour and 53 minutes for the quickest defeat he has endured at Wimbledon in a completed match.
Sinner cruised to a 6-3 6-3 6-4 win to book his place in the Wimbledon final against Carlos Alcaraz and he has now beaten Djokovic five times in a row, a run only Rafael Nadal has matched.
It is now two years since Djokovic won his 24th and most recent Grand Slam title and he has not tasted success at Wimbledon since 2022.
However, Djokovic does not believe the defeat to Sinner will prove to be his Wimbledon farewell, with plans to keep competing into his 40th year.
“I would be sad, but hopefully it's not my last match on the Centre Court,” Djokovic said at his post-match press conference.
“I'm not planning to finish my Wimbledon career today. So I'm planning to come back definitely at least one more time, play on the Centre Court for sure.”
There were doubts over Djokovic’s fitness coming into this semi-final after he suffered a nasty slip in the final game of his win over Flavio Cobolli on Wednesday.
Djokovic called for a medical timeout after the second set against Sinner and confirmed after the match that he was hampered “quite a bit” by the issue.
This was the third time Djokovic has been beaten in a semi-final at the Grand Slams this season and he has struggled to maintain his fitness over the full two weeks.
The Serb retired from his match against Alexander Zverev at the Australian Open in January with a leg injury, while he also received treatment during his defeat to Sinner at Roland Garros last month.
“I don't know what I can do differently, to be honest, because the amount of hours that I spend on a daily basis to take care of myself, I'd like to challenge everyone who is out there on the tour to see if anybody takes cares of themselves more than me,” Djokovic said.
“And I, unfortunately, don't get rewarded for that right now, with injuries at the later stages of Slams. But I was rewarded for many, many years.
“I might see it right now as a misfortune, but I have gotten so much from God and the life in my career that it would be a disservice really from me to God and to my body and to everything that I had in my career to start complaining about injuries because I've been fit for so long and had an incredible career.”
